Some of the largest social media and video-streaming services engaged in “vast surveillance” of millions of consumers, posing serious risks to their privacy — especially among children and teens, the Federal Trade Commission charged late Thursday.
Among tech’s biggest names went so far as to buy information from data brokers to collect details about their age, gender, education and income, according to The New York Times. Compounding matters, users “lacked any meaningful control over how personal information was used for AI-fueled systems” on the companies’ platforms, according to the 129-page report.
“While lucrative for the companies, these surveillance practices can endanger people’s privacy, threaten their freedoms, and expose them to a host of harms, from identify theft to stalking,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a press release. Khan has made user privacy a central tenet of her FTC leadership.
The staff report is based on responses to 6(b) orders issued in December 2020 to nine companies: Amazon.com Inc., which owns gaming platform Twitch; Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc.; Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube; X Corp. (formerly Twitter Inc.); Snap Inc.; ByteDance Ltd., which owns video-sharing platform TikTok; Discord Inc.; Reddit Inc.; and WhatsApp Inc.
Against a backdrop of FTC and Justice Department investigations into Big Tech and its business practices, the report recommends national privacy legislation and internal safeguards by the nine companies to ensure privacy in data collection. FTC staff members are also advocating for stronger parental controls over information gathered on children and teens.
“Protecting users — especially children and teens — requires clear baseline protections that apply across the board,” the FTC report concluded.
The staff report noted companies’ data collection, minimization and retention practices were not only “woefully inadequate,” but some companies did not delete all user data in response to user requests. It found social media and video streaming services “often treated teens the same as adult users, with most companies allowing teens on their platforms with no account restrictions,” the report said.
The potential impact of AI on the collection of personal data has spurred bipartisan calls for federal law. Though some bills have gained traction, such as the Kids Online Safety Act and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act 2.0, both are proceeding slowly through Congress.
Heated debate extends to Silicon Valley, where Apple Inc. has pinned its reputation and products on privacy features, often positioning itself as an alternative to rivals such as Meta.
